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VW suspends prime lobbyist amid inquiry into diesel exams on monkeys

FRANKFURT, Germany — Volkswagen suspended its chief lobbyist Tuesday amid a rising furor over experiments on monkeys that have been meant to advertise the virtues of diesel-powered autos, however now threaten to additional undermine the German automobile trade and to extend political instability in Berlin.

Thomas Steg, the suspended Volkswagen government, is a former aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. The widening controversy concerning the monkey analysis highlighted what critics have known as the overly cozy relationship between the nation’s carmakers and the federal government.